TAIYUAN - Four children have drowned in a river in the northern province of Shanxi, local authorities said Monday.

The children, aged 6 to 12, were reported missing Sunday afternoon, and were confirmed dead Monday morning after being lifted from an ice-covered river, said a rescuer with the Tuci district fire control department in the city of Jinzhong.

Local villagers found one child alive in the Xiaohe River near the village of Yuanwo at 7 am Monday, but the child died later in hospital, and fire fighters retrieved the lifeless bodies of the other three at 8 am Monday, the rescuer said.

Rescuers found a hole, with the diameter of two meters, in the ice of the river surface, and used ice breaking equipment to retrieve the bodies, he said.